Since 2011, The Ministry of Education in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has been working to enhance the Technical Vocational and Educational Training Sector and strengthen national Institutions.

As one of the South African Development Community (SADC) countries engaged in the Better Education for Africa’s Rise (BEAR) initiative, DRC aims to implement sectorial programs through public and private partnership and improve the knowledge base and capacity of TEVET systems to develop evidence-based TEVET policies. Activities within the BEAR project focus mainly on TVET for the construction and agricultural sectors, as some of the main levers for economic development and poverty reduction. The Initiative further aims to strengthen the knowledge base of the Ministry through enhancement to the Management Information System.

OpenEMIS has been piloted to monitor TVET programs, collect student and staff level data and to produce indicators to inform decision making within the sector.

The objective of implementing OpenEMIS is to capture quantitative and qualitative data, including data on institutions, teachers and students by gender, age, ethnicity, disability and region, strengthen national capacity for research, evidence-based planning, and monitoring of TVET initiatives. The system will ensure consistency between the collection of national data and other national certification frameworks, and analyze TVET data to make forecasts by linking skill development to labor market developments.

Community Systems Foundation will work along with the relevant Stakeholders to provide technical advice and support in the design and development of OpenEMIS.

The expected outcome of this initiative is that the DRC will have a robust TVET-MIS with data on all types of institutions, teachers, and students owned and managed by the Ministère de l’enseignement primaire, secondaire et professionnel (Ministère de l’EPSP; and, the ability to bridge the data gap and improve data communication between DETFP and Direction des Etudes et Planification du Ministère de l’EPSP. It is expected that there will be more transparency and accountability on TVET programs and decisions can be driven by data.